What is HIIT? It’s short for High Intensity Interval Training and Tabata is a form of a HIIT workout. This type of exercise burns high amounts of calories in small amounts of time while gaining lean muscle that becomes the engine for boosting your metabolism. The program works legs, core and lungs, improving oxygen uptake/consumption, and though your heart rate will rise in class, your recovery heart rate improves. It actually lowers your heart rate and blood pressure throughout the day. The biggest benefit is that your metabolism is heightened for up to 24 hours after the class, which means your body is also ramped up with energy all day. That automatically leads to our favorite subject: burning fat, especially visceral fat, which is the fat that surrounds the organs. Studies have shown that people who have performed HIIT three times a week burned over four pounds of fat in 12 weeks. Add in clean eating habits and that number grows while your body fat diminishes!

In a Pyramid workout, you increase either reps or weights and then decrease those back down the “pyramid.” For example, if you start with two reps of Squat to Shoulder Press (Thrusters) using a heavier weight, you would then follow with four reps using a slightly lighter weight and so on until you reach 12 reps. Then, you make your way back down from 12 reps to the two reps you started at. Not only do you feel stronger, knowing you just did 84 reps of several exercises, but this builds strength, stamina and, once again, lean muscle that leads to a faster metabolism.  

Please join me on Tuesday and Thursday mornings beginning March 2 at the Outfitter Center for our new OutFITter Workout! Need that third day of HIIT? Kelly Vizzone teaches X-Fit on Saturdays for you. In X-Fit, Kelly will take you through timed intervals on the Row Machine, stations on the Queenax equipment, the TRX and the BOSU ball. All large muscle groups are used in this 45-minute class, creating maximum calorie burn. This class takes place in the Fitness Center at 10:00am every other Saturday. 

To sign up for any of these classes, please visit www.clubsofcordilleraranch.com, go to the Spa & Fitness tab and register for the classes of your choice on the calendar. Trying new things is a big component to boosting your self-confidence! You never know how much you will love something until you step out and try it!

Tamra Christiansen is the Fitness & Wellness Director at The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch. She can be reached at tchristiansen@cordilleraranch.com or 210.878.5367.